Elisabeth

I tried Wim Hof breathing method for a few weeks. Seems to be a lighter version of the exercise. Wim Hof holds a few world-records in stuff like being immersed in ice-cold water for an hour. He's also promoting deep breathing for healing (the physical body as well as the emotional). Watch the mini class or other videos you can find. The difference is, for beginners at least, he's not recommending 30+min sessions, but simply 3x30-40 breaths with holds inbetween every morning (followed by a cold shower.) So that's what I did. This is my experience: 30-40 breaths is enough to make me dizzy and my nose tingling. On holding my breath in between the session, the mind got very peaceful. On the first few trials I got into extatic emotional states. Later it wasn's so pronounced. The exercise certainly facilitates emotional release, not just in the moment but also later. During the days, issues came up. There's also this build up - after two weeks of consistent practice, I actually felt like I was in an emotional whirlwind, and had to take a break for a few days to calm down. You have to spend the energy which has been stirred up somehow. So, exercising more and taking those cold showers makes sense. A surprising effect is, I think I got better with my visual imagination. I did it for about a month (with said break), then I fell off track. I'm bad in keeping habits, but this is a good habit. I'll try to pick it up again. (I'm also looking forward to trying the holotropic breathwork seminar.) Bottom line is, you can also do the breathing for a short time but every day, it's gonna have effects. (As usual, Leo is hardcore with his routines, which is ok, but you do have more gradual options.) The second message is, if you're worried about the health effects, there are actually people who have practiced the Wim Hof method for quite a while and there's research on them.

Um... Do you DO vipassana? Have you got a habit going? IMHO it's foolish to go without learning the technique prior and knowing if it suits - I've made that mistake myself, look up my thread. I handled the retreat just fine, except I left on day two If you're emotionally inhibited, my research says that you would benefit from dynamic techniques which let you express yourself - osho dynamic meditation would be characteristic, but it's also more simply free dancing, some breathing techniques, bodywork/bioenergetics, artetherapy, some shamanic rituals ... there's a broad range of possibilities. But I'm not saying don't do vipassana. Actually, those approaches should complement each other greatly. I don't think there's any problem with your age, or maturity, I'm just not sure that a) vipassana is the single most beneficial tool for you, and b) you can handle it just diving in head first (that's what a retreat is). Good luck.

Also, one possible answer to this could be "become excellent". Than you'll eventually be the leading person in the field, not a lab technician. Is that what you want to do, or not?

Mostly wanna follow this thread. I'm in a pretty much similar place, except I've put a few more years into it. I'm thinking that polymers are rather practical. Would you be happy doing the work if it was in the private sector, and you knew that your company is doing the research for a good reason? Like, you know, polymers which are much more ecological, or polymers for space exploration, or (at least) polymers for stockings that don't break all the time You'd still hyperspecialize, obviously.

I empathize. It seems to be a pretty common experience that people can't talk about self-actualization much. Thankfully I've found friends whom I can talk to about some aspects (and I do recommend a bit of radical honesty for that), but I know the feeling pretty well where I sit at a family meeting or being part of about any superficial conversation trying to just not look TOO bored and disinterested. Only for me, it has pretty much always been that way, even before I knew self-actualization, I always was interested in just a few not-so-well-known topics. Don't take on guilt for being different - it's a fact for some of us. Having the courage to excuse yourself and go read a book helps a lot actually. Developing conversation skills to the point where you can bring up the stuff you're interested in helps too. Cultivating an interest in at least something that's mainstream is also good (if you don't like politics and sports, than culture, travel or jokes may be better options). Non of it saves you. So I don't really know how to help social events but with your friends and your girlfriend you should really take a different approach. Make a point of exposing yourself. Be vulnerable, show your interests, show what's important to you. Not in a forceful "I'm doing more than you" way - just mention it here and there and be prepared to answer if someone asks. Be also prepared to listen and appreciate if people open up in turn. You may loose some of your friends if they mock you in response to your openness, but you'll find the hidden gems between them who can understand but have been keeping their stuff secret. And, have the conversation about how self-actualization is a value to you with your gf (don't expect her to resonate with the exact same stuff though). How did that one go? I'm having a decision to make if I should move back into my parents' house or not. One thing I'm afraid of is having to hide where I've been if I go to seminars, like tantra or holotropic breathwork, or should I decide to take psychedelics. It's must be no fun to be integrating something profound (thus obviously not being quite my social self) and meeting mom in the hallway. I'm quite unwilling to make things up. So the 'what was your weekend like?' 'ah, it was good... (awkward silence because I can't say I did some sexual shadowork)' aspect of the parent-child relationship bothers me currently the most

@Key Elements Thank you very much for your kind answer. I have been thinking about it. Is it resistance that's holding me back? Well, for sure I'm resisting a job change / abandoning academia. That's a huge decision for me. I just realized yesterday that I tell myself how I've got things to lose, but I don't balance it enough with the things to gain. However, for the "baby step" approach ... you seem to have a direction. I don't have one. I'm still all over the place with my intentions. During just the past two weeks I've had phases of Let me do a degree in psychology and become a therapist. (No, I don't actually want to be a therapist. I'm about as excited about talking to clients all day long as I'm about sitting in the office all day long. ) The job's basically right, I do like science, let me just focus more on calculation rather than computer stuff. (Today, again, I feel that's wrong, but I do still believe it sometimes.) Maybe I'm missing some other aspect of my life. I'm just gonna have a baby and work from there. (LOL) I wanna teach. Let me stick to math and physics, but find some, like, private college, where I can teach basic courses. Oh no, let me go teach teenagers at some alternative school where I can have more influence on their personality. (I actually did a search of job offers in education, just to see if I resonate, but not really. ) Let me do popular lectures on quantum theory. And today I'm like Gonna go into the PD field after all. Let me listen to Leo (LOL) and awaken people. Let me start a blog. Oh no, actually, let me try starting a PD peer group just to know how some friends deal with that stuff. The peer group may be a good idea for it's own sake (if I can gather the courage), not necessarily to make a career out of it, but I don't expect the drive to work with people to last more than a few days till the mid point of my period comes and I go back into introversion. See? I'm having trouble determining what that would be. All of the ideas are nice in the abstract, but when I imagine the real details they don't really make the cut. I want a life purpose too. I'm doing phd not to get a degree, but because I thought science would be it. I guess it hurts to let go. Hm It does read like excuses. But I'm also genuinely confused.

Change your damn circle of friends. And/or the way you relate. It's possible. I may be mistaken and living in an extremely liberal area, but while I haven't heard like anything about meditation and spirituality until about 4 years ago, now I find it all around. It's a matter of being open. I've had conversations in my friend groups about body awareness, mindfulness, psychedelics, and even (cautiously) about enlightenment in the past few month. I mean, yeah, most people don't want to hear about self-actualization and spirituality. Especially if you're dogmatic and use Leo's language exactly. But if you're in a big, liberal city (and even if you're not), you can certainly find self-actualizing people. I just takes some time and opening up. People who go to seminars. People who do yoga. People who've had mental-health issues and have taken therapy. People who are into polyamory. People who are into ecology/vegan (?). People who are creative, sci-fi writers, or artists. People are highly abstract thinkers, interested in philosophy or realy theoretical science. In all these groups, you'll find like-minded souls sprinkled in, people who'll appreciate if you share some of Leo's best videos with them and who will point you to their resources, people you can talk to. You just don't notice them usually, they mask in the mundane. But if you find a group, any group, which is out of the mainstream in some way ... some of them, 1 out of 10 maybe, will be a person interested in these topics. You just have to find a way how to get to a personal level and thus recognize each other.

Did you engage in any practices, or is this just from listening? Are there a lot of emotions?

@Leo Gura Well, I'm not sure I was talking on that level. I was pointing out that the "delayed choice quantum erraser" experiment doesn't necessarily denounce objective reality (in any more convincing way than the rest of QM). All I have of reality is perceptions. Yes, the detector is just in my consciousness. Is there an "objective reality", an outside world, to which these perceptions point? The west leans yes. You say no. I don't know. I think I can see how science is a story, and I trust you it's possible to realize on a much deeper level. I can more or less move back and forth between concepts and just observation. But it's what I do when I meditate, and (obviously) not what I do when I'm doing the math. I did like you QM videos, especially the beginning of the second one, where you read the quotes. I found my current understanding resonates with Bohr very much. So anyway either what I'm describing with the science-story is an outside world, or it's some (surprisingly consistent) content of consciousness (as @Outer sais). The people who interpret the delayed choice experiment in a shocking way say it's the knowledge of a human observer that changes reality to what it is. (Note that here "consciousness"=!human mind! , a mind that is still separated from the system - which to me seems nonsensical even within the framework you present.) Btw. to those interested in the experiment @lmfao, I've read more of the article I've linked before. The video commits a rather serious misinterpretation, as it makes you think there's actually interference visible on the "signal" (D1) detector. According to the math in the article, there's not. It's just the correlations done later (and I don't understand how they are done yet, I might have to look into that to understand the issue fully) that have fringes. Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed about that.

Teal Swan has many good videos on authenticity and relationship dynamics. She's a bit out there with the law of attraction and stuff, but on relationships, you could get some unique insights from her.

Actually, no. From my quick search, the materialist will argue that the experiment is explainable within basic QM, using the standard concepts of "entanglement" and "wave-function collapse". The wave-function collapses when the detector clicks. The concepts are counter-intuitive and the instant change in the wave-function is a bit problematic, but they have been incorporated into our basic understanding a long time ago. No need for consciousness in the process. Consciousness is a very ill-defined term once you need to actually do the math Here is the article: Taming the delayed-choice quantum erraser . I didn't go through the math yet, and I don't expect any of you to do so - but you could try reading the abstract and the conclusions.

For a historical reason. Apparently, the first person to study the attractive properties of electricity was William Gilbert in the 16th century, way before the notion of the electron. He didn't quite coin the term of (positive and negative) charge, but close enough In a magnet, you also have two poles but they are usually titled "South" and "North" rather than "+" and "-". Why do you believe that is?

@Charlotte Use the "dictionary" technique - look up different definitions of noble. If you thought there is only one meaning, oughta inspire you

The reddit guy didn't make much sense. I rather like the rational wiki article he links, although it's unnecessarily harsh, because having studied QM at master's level I'm painfully aware how most people who are trying to use QM (or really, any kind of science) to justify spiritual beliefs are utterly misrepresenting and misusing it. The rational wiki admits that there's limiting cases which are not totally out of line That's where Leo falls. Leo has been careful and represented QM rather accurately. It's true that a "particle" is no longer the basic object in QM and especially quantum field theory (a highly theoretical branch that the blogger likely hasn't reached despite his degree in physics). It's also true that the division between an "observer" and a "system" creates a lot of interpretation problems. It's also true that QM is a mere symbolic language, a map to the possible underlying reality, and that QM using of "wave functions" or a "fields" doesn't imply there is such a thing literally (I guess you could make the point with a "mass point" or "force" of Newtonian mechanics just as well). I'm not sure if QM conclusively debunks materialism as Leo sais, I'm not ready to let go of my objective reality I don't think that QM implies there being an infinite number of universes, much less absolute infinity, but it also obviously doesn't disprove it. I do think that contemplating QM can help people (especially physicists) see that reality is much weirder than it seems to be at the first glance. I'm certain that QM does NOT imply the possibility of being enlightened or becoming aware of absolute infinity. (Leo's not claiming that but since he connects those two topics into one video it could seem so.)

Well said. I report the same effect.

Translate. Or actually, have both. I found it's easier for me to think about many of the concepts in English because it doesn't bear so much baggage. But, the translation process into the native language is really interesting, gives the meaning more depth. I'd do programming in native language if you do have a good translation -- that is, unless you already do most of your casual thinking throughout the day in English.

I believe all the options are good (if there's a good school to teach your subject in greece). You could apply to both. You could take the exam and see if you're accepted to the department you want, if not, maybe you could take a gap year, work some related job if possible and apply to USA. All the options are good. Your self-actualization doesn't hinge upon where you study, more upon how you study and what you do besides study. 'Abroad' is likely to make you grow up faster - but you lose your roots, it can be hard for some.

Good luck Shin

If a real war breaks out you probably won't think much about higher stuff - see Maslow's pyramid, safety is at the very bottom. I don't know though if there's really a war coming for Greece. The media tends to catastrophise. Try doing a real objective assessment (or find a trusted source who can, like a foreign political commentator who speaks about the issues), and if it's not that bad, stop watching the news, as mentioned If you're able you might want to go to study in another European country, for a year at least. Grim predictions are being made every now and then, but we're still safe by and large. And, studying abroad will make you feel like a real citizen of the whole world (or Europe at least).

Why not read "The big leap" and "The war of art"?

IMHO studying business & running one at the same time should be possible, so if you're very confident you could take a gap year, get your business running and then proceed to deepen your knowledge. Or, you could start school, wither the storm of the first year, and then work on your business on the side. I wouldn't be making both changes at the same time, but you don't have to wait for your degree. Business school is likely not like you're gonna study medicine, which really takes up all your time and strength. Just my 2$ though, note that I never ran a business. Do you already have a good idea how your business should look like?

@Leo Gura Leo, thank you for answering. I must admit I had a serious case of ROFL because it reads so much like "Stop PHD and pop some LSD instead" ;), but I know that's not all you're saying. I see what you're saying there. Yes, my studies have affected my health, and likely my psychology, in a very negative way. There's no fire, I'm already in my second year of phd, and I actually managed to make the workload less and direct more energy towards selfcare and spirituality. So there's no fire. Selfcare /healthcare is a sticking point for me, I do have a shitty diet and minimum excercise , but I became more willing to do the changes lately. Thank you for actualized.org, I don't think I would have the inspiration to change otherwise. There's a tug of war going on inside me when I see you writing that I have no passion for the field - although I pretty much wrote it above myself, when I see you telling me I feel that's not quite true. Like I do have a love for physics, after all, something has sustained me throughout all these years, and it wasn't just sheer desperation. Yet I've come to accept that I'm not on the right track and a career change is what I must do as soon as possible. I'm not at a point of just quitting without a plan though. I guess I still have to endure the discomfort of not knowing for a while. When I read that I thought "I'd still do physics, just the exciting kind, I just wouldn't do it all the time". I imagined the universe. Then I thought off all the technicalities cosmology involves and realized I likely wouldn't do it really. I had the chance, I've already failed that attempt. I've started watching your QM video, I may give you feedback later. I guess I did want to become the visionary kind of scientist. Yet I see now that even if I succeeded at that, I would not be happy because it's so distant from people. Aside from that, I have real trouble answering that question, even with all the good hints you gave us in the course. Well, this is the ROFL line Me... awaken... what? How do you make a career out of that and not mimic Leo, which wouldn't suit me anyway? Am I going to join the rows of your followers who discovered that their purpose is to "raise consciousness" without really knowing what that means? I guess IF I take psychedelics (or go deep enough with the holotropic process), we'll talk later.

I've had the same problem with the passion value, defined pretty similarly to yours. I do believe it's authentic, but I've been questioning whether "passion" is really different from happiness - as leo specifically told us not to include happiness, because that's the goal, not a value that would get us there. I've since redefined "passion" to "actually doing the things I love", meaning whatever it is that I'm passionate about right now, if I'm doing it throughout my day, I'm living the value of passion.

@ADD @Shin Sure, you do low-consciousness stuff until you suffer too much. I'm just saying then you have to do the next step to grow up, which ... well I'm not sure what that is for Hardkill. He's gotten many good suggestions. It's only some of them may be asking him to skip stages. That's why I went for the prostitute suggestion. I think it ... could ... be a necessary step.